The benefits of nourishing newborn infants by breastfeeding have long been established. Nursing mothers today are increasingly busy and for various reasons often wish to express breast milk to store for times when she is unable or unavailable to directly breast feed her infant or for modesty, convenience, or other reasons prefers not to directly breast feed her infant. A woman typically expresses breast milk using an electric or manual pumping device in connection with a funnel or shield that is held tightly over the woman's breast. The pumping device creates suction inducing milk flow and directing the flow of milk through the shield and to a storage container coupled to the pumping device.
To save time, women often express milk from both breasts simultaneously, which generally requires the woman to hold the shields using both hands against her breasts, leaving her unable to enjoy other activities requiring use of her hands. The process of expressing milk can be time consuming, and consequently, there is a need for garments that assist a woman in holding the shields tightly against her breasts during milk expression while freeing her hands for other activities. Existing garments for this purpose largely are configured to be worn only during periods when milk is being expressed, thereby, requiring a garment change before and after expressing milk, which increases the burden on the woman expressing milk. Accordingly, there continues to be a need for garments that both assist a woman in expressing milk and provide the support and/or style desired by the woman during periods between milk expressing sessions.